Over the past six days, we’ve received over ten inches of rain on the Bradford Mountain gauge and just over eight inches at the Winery gauge. It’s been wet here. We’re all smiling now. I walked the property on Saturday in the pouring rain (really fun…when’s the last time you played in the pouring rain?) and the runoff was clear at all the drains. That makes me feel good about our cover crops and our erosion control efforts.
Today’s equation: Rain + permanent cover crop = clean water running into the creek. Nice. It seems like a basic equation, right? Not when you look into all the work that goes into it. Let’s break it down. Rain? Not in our hands, so we just hope for the best. Permanent cover crop? A lot of work goes into that. Sheep movement, mowing, encouraging the proper crops for the correct blocks and making sure we don’t mow before they seed out (ensuring next years cover crop). It’s a bit of a juggling act, but we like the circus, so no big drama.
No silty runoff from the Michel-Schlumberger property! Take that!
Now that the rains have let up a bit (more to come…stay tuned!), the water level in Wine Creek is dropping. I walked around this morning and saw one adult steelhead. The creek is in great shape and the new structures that we (Trout Unlimited, Dept. of Fish and Game and Michel-Schlumberger) put in the creek a few years back are looking natural. Nice work Elliot Doss!
Being Fish Friendly Farmers, we take a huge amount of pride in the creek’s vitality and overall health. It’s looking a lot better now that it has water in it. With this committment to the creek comes an added bonus. Better winegrapes. What? Yes, indeed. The permanent cover crop (aka Nature’s filter) that keeps our runoff so clean, also keeps the vigor of the vines at bay. Excess vigor in grapevines can lead to green flavors and aromas and as much as we like to showcase the specific flavors of this ranch, we don’t want the wines to taste like bell peppers either. So, the cover crop competes for water and nutrients and it also give something back in the form of slow release nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous once they’ve been mowed. As these plants decay, they release all of this into the soil and “blanket” the vineyard with a protective cover for all of our friends that live in this rich healthy soil. We’re proud of our soil here at Michel-Schlumberger.
